'The Arnold' means growth, success

Thursday

Mar 1, 2012 at 12:01 AMMar 1, 2012 at 2:24 PM

Arnold. That's all it takes, just the first name - and it's hard to think of anyone other than the famous bodybuilder, action-movie star and former governor of California, or his annual Columbus festival. This type of instant recognition is invaluable in creating a brand, and it has helped grow the Arnold Sports Festival and Fitness Expo into the country's largest such event.

Steve Wartenberg, The Columbus Dispatch

Arnold.

That’s all it takes, just the first name — and it’s hard to think of anyone other than the famous bodybuilder, action-movie star and former governor of California, or his annual Columbus festival.

This type of instant recognition is invaluable in creating a brand, and it has helped grow the Arnold Sports Festival and Fitness Expo into the country’s largest such event.

About 18,000 athletes from 80-plus countries and 175,000 attendees will be in Columbus today through Sunday for the 45-sport festival. They will fill the city’s hotels, spend an estimated $42.4 million and pave the way for the city to attract other sporting events.

“The Arnold gives us legitimacy,” said Bruce Wimbish of the Greater Columbus Sports Commission. “ When people say we can’t host a major sporting event, this shows the answer is, yes, (we can)."

It all began in 1975 with a handshake between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Lorimer, an executive at Nationwide at the time who organized and ran sporting events in his spare time.

“Arnold has great vision,” said Lorimer, who is happy to be “the behind-the-scenes guy.”

Their business plan has focused on controlling and growing the Arnold brand; attracting sponsors and exhibitors; adding sports and qualified chairmen to run them; and thinking creatively to come up with ideas that keep the festival fresh.

In recent years, the event has added the Art at the Arnold competition and the Arnold Sports Film Competition, and Madrid hosted the first Arnold Classic Europe in October as the brand went international.

“So many event organizers do the same thing year after year,” said Linda Logan, executive director of the Greater Columbus Sports Commission. “Jim’s always had the spark of creativity, and every time, he’s been proven right.”

Where it started

Arnold and Lorimer met in 1970 when the latter ran the Mr. World bodybuilding contest at Veterans Memorial. Lorimer persuaded the muscular up-and-comer to attend, arranging a flight from London (where Arnold was competing).

Arnold won the competition, and the $500 prize.

“He told me it was the best competition he’d ever been in, and that when he was done competing, he wanted to promote events, and he’d call me,” Lorimer said. “I was thinking, ‘Yeah, sure.’?”

Sure enough, Arnold called in 1975.

“The first few years, we ran it as Mr. Olympia, and all these organizing committees saw how successful we were and said we had to move it to different cities and to Europe,” Lorimer said. “We kept changing the name and holding it here, and Arnold finally said: ‘Let’s put my name on it; they can’t take that away.’”

A brand was born.

To this day, Arnold, 64, and Lorimer, 85, work on a handshake agreement.

“It’s been the greatest partnership I have ever been in, based on trust, soul mates,” Arnold told The Dispatch in 2008.

At the end of every Arnold festival, Lorimer said, whatever money is left, after all the expenses are paid, is split 50-50 between the two. Lorimer wouldn’t disclose how much this has been over the years, but he said the event has been profitable every year.

Expanding the scope

The fitness-expo part of the event was added in 1993, and the next year, the Arnold became a three-day event, featuring multiple sports and contests.

“We were in the basement at Veterans Memorial the first few years, and people kept coming up to us and saying they had products to market,” Lorimer said. “So we started a small exposition, maybe six vendors the first year — and it took off.”

Exhibiting at the Arnold is now “a must” for sports-related companies, said Tobe Cohen, a division vice president and general manager of EAS, the locally based sports-nutrition brand of Abbott.

“There’s nothing else like it, this unique intersection of the bodybuilding world with more-general competitions and sports,” he said. “The breadth and scope is incredibly unique.”

This unique access is why the expo’s 700 exhibit spaces, which go for $2,000 each, quickly sell out. There’s a waiting list of about 100 companies, Lorimer said, adding that the rentals are the festival’s top revenue source.

Lorimer is always looking to add sports, but even more important than the sport is finding the right person to run it.

Lorimer provides free competition space to each chairperson for his or her event. These organizers keep the registration fees that they charge competitors. The revenue from ticket sales goes to Arnold organizers.

Tim Willson of Cyclone Gymnastics in Gahanna has run the Arnold’s gymnastics competition for 12 years, and he said his annual budget is about $150,000 to $180,000.

“And everything we take in, we put back into the competition,” he said.

Logan said this business model, of empowering the chairman of each event, works well. “It’s like each one is a small business, and he’s lending money to all these small businesses,” she said.

Looking ahead

Over the years, poachers have tried to steal the Arnold, offering piles of money to move the event to Las Vegas or Walt Disney World.

“It was heavy money” is all Lorimer will say, adding, “Arnold likes it here.”

Retaining the Arnold is important for Columbus.

“Cities work very hard to have these created events — events where there are not rights held by someone else that the cities have to bid on,” said Dale Neuberger of TSE Consulting, an Indianapolis-based sports-consulting firm that helps cities bid. “Cities seek creative capital from individuals who can devise and sustain an annual event — and there aren’t too many of them like” the Arnold.

Although the Arnold will remain in Columbus, the brand will expand: The event in Europe is to be held each year, and an annual event is possible in South America.

“We’re looking at Brazil right now and have some companies we’re looking to partner with,” Lorimer said.

Although Arnold might live forever on film, there will come a time when both he and his partner retire, or as Lorimer puts it, “go down.”

With succession planning in the works, Lorimer said the goal is to keep the Arnold going long after their partnership ends.

“What we’re doing here,” he said, “has such a big impact on the community and on the lives of so many young people.”